138 SADDLERY. 



thus rendering it difficult to pick up the stirrup. It is 

 evident that web leathers would look extremely out of 

 place in the hunting field. With light leathers, the part 

 through which the holes are punched should be strengthened, 

 as is always done with webs, by an extra thickness of 

 leather ; because, when a fracture takes place, it almost always 



Fig. 140. Mr. T. U. Clarke's Gauge for the Withers. 



occurs at the hole through which the tongue of the buckle 

 passes. 



The short tongue of the buckle of a stirrup leather and 

 the open space below it (Fig. 141) are relics of former 

 days, when it was the custom to pass the end of the 

 leather (Fig. 142) through that open space (Fig. 143). As 

 this arrangement made an uncomfortable lump under the 

 of the saddle, and as it increased the difficulty ot 



